How Turning Weather Experiences Into Climate Experiences Shapes Opinions: A survey experiment

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# How Turning Weather Experiences Into Climate Experiences Shapes Opinions: A survey experiment
## DPS Research Days 2022
### Søren Damsbo-Svendsen
### Department of Political Science<br>University of Copenhagen
### 19 January 2022

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# Background

- My **project**: How personal experience with extreme/unusual weather shapes climate opinions and behavior

- For instance, **exposure to unusual recent temperatures or a flooding event** can increase climate awareness/concern (sometimes also opinions and behavior)

- But why? It must depend on what (other) information/knowledge they have about **the climate-weather link**. Why else relevant?

- Key project hypothesis: **Media climate coverage or other provision of information on climate-weather link strengthens effects of weather experiences**

- Long story short: **Hard to do causal study** of experience-knowledge interaction &rarr; but with this study we directly attempt it (for the first time)

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# This study

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- Is a subproject with Tobias Heide-Jørgensen

- To assess if **information (knowledge) about climate-weather link strengthens effects of experience**, we do a:

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- **Survey experiment** with 30 questions, 2500 respondents, and 6 experimental groups

- We also want to address (1) the **direct effect of personal weather experiences** and (2) of **information** plus (3) whether **priming self-interest** considerations is necessary/effective,  as well as (4) **how effects vary** among groups (e.g., based on ideology, political awareness, environmentalists/the rest)

- **Case: Heatwaves, high temperatures, and extreme summer of 2018** (with heatwaves, record-breaking sun, heat, and drought, burn ban, etc.)

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# This study

**Four treatments**

1. Prompt and subtle "aid" to **recall 2018 summer weather**
2. **Information** about climate change causing more extreme weather
3. Same as 3. plus the information that it may have serious personal **health-related consequences** (to prime self-interest) 
4. Objective local, recent outdoor **temperatures** (observed)

**Four outcomes**

1. Climate **awareness** (index)
2. Climate **opinions** (index)
3. **Willingness-to-act** (single measure)
4. **Willingness-to-pay** (single measure)

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# Theoretical framing and contribution

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- Design is almost settled, but theoretical framing is not, so

- **How do we think about and frame this interaction between information and personal experience?**

- Information about the climate-weather link makes personal experience **relevant**, it **activates** it as a **source of information** or as a **useful heuristic**

- We are considering framing it with Hopkins (2010), modified:<br>**Climate-weather information _politicizes_ local weather experiences**

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- We contribute to:

- (Climate) **opinion formation** and political behavior literature including information processing and role of experience and self-interest       
  - Climate change **communication**

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# Thank you!

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# Survey design sketch